Disclosed are fuser apparatus having a fuser cleaner web and corresponding methods.
In a typical electrophotographic or electrostatographic printing process, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to selectively dissipate the charges thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules either to a donor roller or to a latent image on the photoconductive member. The toner attracted to a donor roller is then deposited as latent electrostatic images on a charge retentive surface which is usually a photoreceptor. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive member to a copy substrate. The toner particles are heated to permanently affix the powder image to the copy substrate.
In order to fix or fuse the toner material onto a support member permanently by heat and pressure, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky. This action causes the toner to flow to some extent onto the fibers or pores of the support members or otherwise upon the surfaces thereof. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material occurs causing the toner material to be bonded firmly to the support member.
One approach to thermal fusing of toner material images onto the supporting substrate has been to pass the substrate with the unfused toner images thereon between a pair of opposed rolls at least one of which is internally heated. During operation of a fusing system of this type, the support member to which the toner images are electrostatically adhered is moved through the nip formed between the rolls with the toner image contacting the heated fuser roll to thereby affect heating of the toner images within the nip. In a conventional two roll fuser, one of the rolls is typically provided with a layer or layers that are deformable by a harder opposing roller when the two rollers are pressure engaged.
In typical fusing systems, the fuser roll can be cleaned by a web. The web provides a textured surface for removing particles of toner that remained on the fuser roll after the paper with the toner image has passed through the fuser. The web may be drawn from a replaceable supply roll and be moved at a relatively slow rate relative to the movement of the fuser roll. The motion of the fuser roll relative to the web causes the fuser roll to rub against a small area of the web. Because the web is moving slower than the fuser roll friction of the web to the fuser roll surface causes a supply of clean web at a reasonable rate to clean toner from the fuser roll. Ideally, the web would be typically run at a substantially constant speed high enough to clean the fuser roll.